Forget Me Not
by the-caged-bird-singeth
Summary: Sasuke Uchiha has gone. Left. Fled in his search of power and hunger for revenge. Haruno Sakura, meanwhile, has been left in the dust. What happens when she finds the ultimate solution to end her mind-numbing pain? The cost is huge; can she simply forget?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, hello, my fellow writers! I suppose that I do not need to inform you that this is a Naruto fanfiction, told from the viewpoint of Haruno Sakura. I do hope you enjoy; the idea struck me as a simple and doable solution to her...conflict...in my story, and especially plausible with the resources and abilities that the ninja presented in Naruto possess. It's sort of a drama, romance; I'm sure I'll manage to fit in some comedic elements, but they won't be just rampant throughout. Sorry, if that inconveniences you. Haha...  
The story that follows is really more of an introduction to the actual plot. Just to see what everyone thinks. Please, comment, rate, etc etc. Bring down the axe! I can take it  
_  
Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, shape, or form, own the characters, plot, or whatever else there is that makes up the ahhh-mazing anime of Naruto. Those belong to Masashi Kishimoto._ **

**Anyways...enjoy!**

_I never expected him to, you know, just...come back. _

_Sure, he may return for his own twisted, half-baked reasons, but..._

_I never saw it any other way._

_He'd completely severed all ties with this place. _

_This place didn't exist for him anymore._

_We were nothing._

_I was nothing._

_His memories of here, and then, and whatever warped feelings he experienced here_

_were nothing._

_His heart had chosen its path, that's what he told me on that day, those years ago._

_It is gray in my memory; whether the weather was actually disagreeable that day, or that's just how my own mind chooses to remember it; _

_my heart told me it was gray, so I remember it as such; _

_really, I just think my soul_

_was gray._

_Was it raining? _

_I can't honestly testify. I think so...but that could have just been my tears remembered in the form of rain, as my aforementioned inner darkness was remembered in the form of _

_Gray. Fog. Dark. Shadow._

_I swear there was a chill, _

_as he turned away_

_that one last time._

_I thought I had known Love for him during my childhood leading up to that moment. And I had. Maybe not the love I thought...maybe not the passionate, school-girl wishful romance I had assumed; it was the idea of romance itself I had fallen in love with. I didn't get it then. I still don't now._

_But what I did experience on that day,_

_for the first true time_

_was Loss._

_As he walked away, into that ugly gray..whatever it was, twilight, dusk, I had no concept of time; _

_I knew I had lost something._

_I wasn't sure what, though I was pretty fucking sure_

_I was going with him_

_without actually leaving._

_He took me away from here_

_from this place I knew_

_or thought I knew;_

_from my friends _

_from my family_

_from breathing._

_And only then, after waking up on that fucking bench_

_that had been so cold_

_and so lonely_

_did I begin to realize_

_how much I really hated him._

_Hate is another one of those feelings like Love_

_so Strong _

_so Unbreakable_

_So people think._

_Well, they can both crumble,_

_that's for fucking sure._

_And they have this annoying habit_

_of putting themselves back together again_

_once the sun has started to shine back through the holes inside you,_

_So they block out all the light_

_and you're all alone in the dark with those feelings_

_Again._

_And you just want to..._

_forget._

After he left I became like a sort of shell. You know, that annoying cliched metaphor you hear so much; about becoming a hollow of your former self. It's surprisingly accurate; give the imaginative sucker who came up with it some credit. I was, of course, devastated for months after; it wasn't until the breaking of the following year did I begin to recover, and then the 'anniversary' rolled around, and the raw feelings I'd only managed to hide popped back out again.

I hadn't said "Marco" yet,

but Polo came to play anyway.

As can be assumed, my friends and family all tried their hardest to cheer me, and for the first few weeks I loathed them all for it. Why were they trying to be happy? Why was the world still spinning? Couldn't they see Sasuke was gone? Or did that little detail just manage to escape their minds, buried in their fake smiles?

But soon I began to appreciate their efforts, though they had no effect. Sasuke was still gone. I was still alone. That was the reality. Like I said, though. I didn't feel for him what I thought I did all those years ago.

After the loathing stage, I descended into the self-hatred, moping, wallow-in-my-own-misery phase. I had driven Sasuke away. It was all my fault. Everyone hated me. They all had a right to. So, when a ray of sunlight was finally able to penetrate the Gray, the Shadows, of course I sprung at it as if it were the life-saving oasis in a desert, and embraced this new opportunity.

This new opportunity I speak of is not conventional; in fact, I had never even known of its existence until I happened to stumble upon it accidentally at work.

I had been putting in a late night; Tsunade, of course, had slacked on her paperwork and convienently left it for me to sift through. I remember having just given up on my last stack of papers, and instead directed my attention towards cleaning up a little so it would look like I at least did something before I headed for home, for once glad that Lady Hokage had a tendency to get drunk. A lot. I could slip out quietly; she'd never know. Until I had to face her hungover wrath the next morning, of course. Ah, well. All positives had their negatives. It also helped to take my mind off of you-know-who.

Moving and shifting things this way and that, I had paused to dump a heap of month-old memos (probably still unread. Now _that_ was some good village running, right there. One-up, Lady 'Kage! Isn't sarcasm fun?) in the trash bin, but the stack felt heavier than usual. Even for Tsunade, that was a lot of memos to ignore. Setting the papers back down, careful not to mix them with _this_ month's memos and things, I quickly found the source of my weight problem: a good sized book had found its way into the pile, hidden expertly by papers and even an old candy bar wrapper.

"What's this..?" I asked myself, sort of lame, now that I think back on it. Anyways. I scooped up the book and opened the cover, curious as to why the outside didn't have a title; the title page simply read "Forbidden Medical Jutsu" in the Lady's familiar scrawl.

Scanning over the pages, I'd heard of some of these before; the jutsu Tsunade used on herself was included as well. Heh. Shame, shame, Hokage.

One caught my eye, though; a specific jutsu I had never even caught wind of before, in a passing conversation or from the Lady or anyone. The 'effects' box that described what the jutsu did as a whole to the patient drew my eye, and I began to read:

**effects: **_Patient will have no mental record of the chosen memories hidden;_

_works best with a few memories rather than the whole human Memory. _

_Memories cannot be erased completely; jutsu will simply block them from the patient's consciousness and everyday life. _

_They will go about the rest of their days as if the erased events never happened, though some cases have reported severe _

_deja vu if ever encountering a situation or experience similar to those erased._

I stared at the page for a second, blinking, wondering why this particular treatment seemed so significant to me. What would I want to forget?

And then, of course, I dropped the book as those memories smacked me right in between the eyes, bombarding me from all sides, inside and out; I could almost actually feel them pelting my body until I was worn down, for the millionth time, reduced to the floor. Yea, well, I was tired of that.

I'd been tired of it for a long time. Now what could I do about that?

Peering down at the page once more, as if for guidance, I marveled in my own stupidity. Which, of course, I blamed on my broken heart. I'd blamed lots of things on that lately. I had painful memories. (Understatement..) I wanted so, so desperately to rid myself of this torture. And the solution was right there in front of me, practically begging me to embrace it.

Next thing I knew, I was hurling myself at the Lady's door, unknowingly crying with relief that I had found salvation. I was going to forget; I didn't have to forgive, or feign happiness, or any of that anymore. I could forget; I could _forget!_

I pounded on her office door frantically, not caring about the hole I put in it.

"Tsunade! TSUNADE! _OPEN THIS DOOR_!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello again! I remembered that I hadn't specified the ages for the characters in this one, though it's obviously timeskip Naruto. I'm seeing Sakura and the other genin around twenty-ish, though I haven't exactly specified an age. That would make Kakashi and co. about thirty-three or so. And in response to the question that was posed to me in one of the reviews: yes, I do consider this a sasusaku romance/drama type fic. While there are other relationships depicted, and even Sakura in other relationships, it does tell the situations of the village as a whole, but it is mainly about the development and story of the relationship between Sasuke and Sakura. Also, in case it wasn't clear enough for some, the previous chapter was really an introduction to let you know about the memory erasing. Now, the story picks up at Sakura's viewpoint in which she has no memories of Sasuke. Well, so she thinks...So now, without further ado...**

_**Disclaimer: -sigh- again, no, I do not own Naruto. If I did, my own fanfic character would be in it, and she would totally kick anus. That's right. I said it.**_

It was perfect:

My head was nodding to the beat of one of my favorite songs, my bare feet resting on the edge of my desk, my body leaning back in my overly comfortable chair. You know, those kinds that look like heaven, but are actually so comfy they try to consume you? Yea, I'd prefer not to be eaten by plushy bliss. Tsunade was badly influencing me; I was ignoring the stack of papers on my desk (which had been sent to me because the Lady had ignored them too), and instead was enjoying the moment.

"Sakura! These came for you," a bright voice said to my back, or the back of my hungry chair, more like it. Whirling it around (and having fun doing it), I knew the scent of my favorite flower before I even saw the gorgeous buttery-yellowness of it.

"Ohh!" I cooed, knowing exactly who they were from. Giggling, I nodded my thanks to Shizune, Tsunade's other right-hand woman.

"Don't mention it. He really likes you, you know," she stated the obvious, flipping her short chocolate-brown hair over her shoulder.

"Well, _duh_. He's liked me since we were in the academy, silly," I replied, thinking of my blonde friend...who'd recently become more than a friend. Or so I hoped. He wasn't as annoying as he used to be; I'd come to accept the hyperactive nature of Naruto as a branch of his relentless determination. I enjoyed thinking about our genin days. It made me so happy; though it always felt as if something were missing.

Brushing off the feeling, I smiled at Shizune, and she shook her head, turning to leave. This was interrupted, though, by my best pervy friend.

"Genma!" I exclaimed, beaming. He was alright as long as he didn't get _too_ pervy.

"There's my cherry blossom," Genma winked, ruffling my bubblegum tresses. Every guy I had come in contact with had done that to me, I guessed. It was all Kakashi-sensei's fault. He started it!

"Back to business, though. Not that I ever thought I'd hear myself say that. Shizune, I need to see the Lady," he explained, the ever-constant sinbon twitching around as he spoke. Something was wrong, though; I saw it in his face, which was deprived of its normally mischievous expression, replaced by a more dire, serious look.

"She's in a meeting, Genma, but I can give her a message. Is everything okay?" Shizune replied, her brow furrowing in concern.

I sat upright, as far as my chair would allow without being sucked backwards into the cushiony madness. Ears wired to maximum acuteness, even though the two were right in front of me, I listened intently. Genma glanced minutely in my direction; if I hadn't been so alert I probably wouldn't have caught it. Shizune repeated the gesture, and I felt like asking them if I should leave (sarcasm, of course; I wasn't going anywhere). Genma hesitated once more, then spoke.

"H-He's coming back. Have you heard? Kakashi alerted me--" --another glance my way-- "--Sasuke Uchiha is coming back."

I saw Shizune's eyes widen, and she very conspicuously oogled at me. Yea, oogled! Feeling like some kind of freak show, I spat,

"What?!"

"Um..nothing, Sakura," and turned swiftly, exiting the room as if she had somewhere more important to be. Pfft.

"Genma? What's going on?" I asked, getting up with a little effort to escape the clutches of my pillowy prison of softness, and standing in front of him, cutting off escape through the wooden double doors. I was pretty sure I could take him if he tried to run. Cocking a cotton-candy brow, I awaited my enlightenment.

"Sakura, cherry blossom, don't worry about it. You've never even heard of him, right? No big deal," was my oh-so-informative response from him. He was right, though. I'd never heard of the guy; though something did sound familiar, about the name. Uchiha? I'd heard about the clan around the village, supposedly they were a big deal or something. Nobody talked about them much; especially, it seemed, while I was around. Maybe I was a bother or something. Who know? I might just be paranoid. Probably.

"Right. Okay. Um...I should get back to work. Yea. I have some--important memos to go through. Out, Genma, byeeee...," I shooed him away, out the doors. I had a few visits to make.

First on the list was my ultimate information well: Ino. The blonde, however much of a bimbo she may be sometimes, knew anything about everything and everything about anything. I left a note to Tsunade that told her I was gone away on some crap I made up about something to do with a memo, or something, grabbed my Jounin vest and stuffed my arms in it and was out the door in no time. I suppose I walked a little too briskly in my determination; Hinata stopped me on the street in passing with a soft touch on my arm.

"Sakura? Everything alright?" came her whispery voice from beside me; she'd lost the stutter, even around objects of affection (she had finally admitted to Kiba that he was...well, more than a comrade, to say the least), but the voice hadn't lost its quiet humbleness.

"Everything's fine, Hina," I smiled, using my special nickname for her. The navy-haired shinobi had become a great friend to me in the past few years; she'd helped me through countless problems. Funnily enough, though, I could never remember what those were exactly, and she had to constantly remind me that I had failed a very high-ranked mission in which one of my team members never made it back. Supposedly I was grieving for months. It greatly disturbed me, though, that I couldn't even remember who this person was. It was as if my memory of that time had been erased; maybe I'd just blocked it out in my pain, if such a thing was possible. I didn't have time to contemplate the perplexities of the human mind, though; I said a quick goodbye to Hinata and went on my way through the heat of the summer day to the Yamanaka's flower shop.

The bell above the door tinkled to signal my arrival, and Ino's already happy face brightened when she caught sight of me.

"Sakura! I'm so glad you came. Do you have any juicy news for me?!" the blonde asked, frighteningly long ponytail shockingly not taking out everything it brushed in its path. I'd be afraid of the sheer weight of the thing; I'd even hate to be in the way of that mountain of bang she had coming out of her forehead. Like father like daughter, I suppose.

"Well...sort of. Someone's coming into town, apparently. Someone important."

"Ohh! Who?! Tell me!" she prompted, cradling her chin in her hands and supporting her upper body by leaning on her elbows on the counter.

"I don't know who it is. Some...Sasuke? I think it was...Uchiha was the last name. Do you know who that is?"

Her eyes widened to an alarming size, and I was tempted to smack her in efforts to make her bring them back down to size; I had to save this poor woman and her vision!

I sighed, already tired of this reaction, and rolling my eyes, snapped again:

"For Kami's sake, _what_?!"

"Ohh! I don't know much about him, but I've heard he's reeeeeeeeeeally cute. Maybe we should meet him. Something tells me he'd be peeerfect for you!" she replied in a sing-song way, eyes glittering.

"Not a good idea, Ino."

The voice came from somewhere behind us, but I didn't have to look; I'd know it anywhere.

"Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing here?" I asked, pretty sure the expression on my face flashed a huge 'confused' sign. Probably right smack dab in the middle of my 'billboard brow'. Sigh.

"Sakura, don't you have to meet Tsunade in five minutes?" the masked man really stated more than asked, but he wasn't looking at me; his one-eyed gaze was boring right into Ino's face. It wasn't a pleasant stare, that's for sure, but it wasn't what I'd call anger either. But Kakashi was good at hiding feelings. Come to think of it, though, Tsunade _had_ asked me to meet her...I glanced at a clock hanging on the wall and nearly choked on the air as I finally grasped his point.

"Holy shit! I'm late!" I exclaimed, shooting a look at him that I hoped said "thanks", and sprinted out the door. Charging full-speed at the Hokage's building, I ignored the stares of the villagers and completely left Hinata in the dust this time.

Finally making it to the second-to-last floor before the offices, I was just about to head up the stairs when something caught my arm; I was shocked, moving as fast as I was, something--or some_one_--would have to be moving pretty damn fast to catch me.

"What?!" I said again, for about the fourth time today, but this time it was more annoyed than angry. I knew my face was a horror show of the frightening anger of a female shinobi; plus, my face felt really flushed, and that sort of offset the pink 'do, making for an even more intense look. From what Naruto tells me, my jade eyes also do this creepy sparkling thing. Apparently it makes me look evil or something.

"Hello? Can I _help_ you?" I spat again, since my captor hadn't given me a reason for randomly stopping my full-frontal charge to the Tsunade. Now I was probably late. Well crap.

"Can you direct me to where the Lady's office would be located?"

The deep voice unsettled me; it triggered something. What? I don't know. I didn't have time for random 'feelings'. Probably bullshit anyway. I was on edge; that was it. I looked up at the man, and was again unsettled; I believe my balance was also affected. Swearing his arm tightened around mine to keep me upright, I also would have sworn up and down I got a hint of a smile. Which, of course, completely delighted me. The dude was gorgeous. Long, raven hair; disturbing, yet intriguing, obsidian eyes; and that strange clothing which, I hadn't taken notice of yet. The only thing I took into account was that it exposed his sculpted chest quite nicely. My sharp eyes also happened to catch his attempt at hiding his headband, though, which had a slash mark through the Leaf symbol: so he was rouge. Criminal. Outcast. Well that was a turnoff. I couldn't waste time flirting anyway. So I'd take the bitchy route; maybe he'd leave me alone.

"Ex_cuse_ me, darling, but you can let go of my arm now. And I was heading to the Lady's office now, but I'm afraid you can't come. Sorry, invitation only."

He couldn't get in without a summons from Tsunade anyway, or unless he checked with Shizune or me first. Which, he sort of just had...but nobody has to know that. Something very curious happened, though:

The man's face suddenly morphed into a mixture of confusion, annoyance, even anger; the thunderous silence of his wrath overtook his whole expression, though, and I was--for a split second--terrified beyond reason. It was exquisite, his anger. He made the silence seem so loud.

"I--come with me," I sighed, caving. I jerked my arm out of his grip, and sprinted up the stairs, somehow knowing without a doubt that he could keep up.

Knocking softly on Tsunade's door and poking my head in, I saw her face twist into a disapproving look and I knew I was in trouble for being late. But that look shifted to shock; the lapse of grace didn't last long, though. It was replaced by a stony grimness. Peering over my shoulder, I saw she'd seen the man who'd followed me up here, and I almost thanked him for getting me out of trouble. At least for now.

We both stepped in, myself curious; she hadn't told wwme to leave yet, after all...

"Sakura, this is Sasuke Uchiha," Tsunade introduced, still grim, gesturing to the muscely dude.

"Yo...Sakura."

He said my name with a steely interest; curiosity didn't play across his features, though. It turned out more like minute examination. He seemed...unsettled, by something. Though, I ignored both of these observations by my subconscious, because I nearly melted when he said my name. Which, damnit, he noticed, letting me know with a smirk.

"Hi...Sasuke. Look, Lady Hokage, I've got some-some paperwor..memo...I..I'm gonna go."

Well. That's babbling like an idiot for you. I couldn't even finish my words. Rushing out the door, I made it back to my office in a flash and collapsed into my chair, forgetting it would suck me in like a vacuum. My heart was racing about sixty beats past normal speed, which wasn't what I'd call great, and I'd broken out in a cold sweat. I had no idea who that guy was. I searched my memories, sifted and sifted, and he wasn't there. Which made sense, since I'd never seen him before. So I guess it was just his attractiveness that was getting to me. All I could think was:

"What--the--HELL?!"


End file.
